demonstration

We are excited to announce our upcoming tour in the Finnish archipelago!

On April 4th, Clyde Wilder and Malin Grahn-Wilder invite the audience at Åland Islands on a historical journey through the development of jazz from West Africa to the U.S., through plantations to juke joints and ballrooms. The journey continues all the way to the Nordic countries, where during the glory days of Charleston and other jazz crazes, people created their own variations of movements that have a long history in the African diaspora.

At the end of the show, the audience will get the change to learn some fun and rhythmical jazz dance steps with the performers in an introductory workshop.

The show is hosted by Nordens Institute på Åland, and performed together with the Åland-based jazz band Red Beans & Rice.

On April 8th, we welcome you to the Saari residence in the beautiful Turku Archipelago. Malin Grahn-Wilder and Clyde Wilder’s lecture-demonstration “Freedom Movement” explores emotions and movement in the African American dance tradition.

Jazz is often called ‘freedom music’ because of the space it opens for the musician’s own freedom of expression. The same holds for the traditional jazz dance, which is at the same time individual and connecting, enabling an immediate communication between the dancers. The lecture-demonstration shows how still today, the language of jazz unites people over cultural and racial differences.